I hadn’t even shifted lately, I also haven’t had my period —so why did it hurt this bad all of a sudden?

It wasn’t just physical. It was as if something deep inside me—my wolf—was clawing at my insides, howling in anguish, furious and frightened at once.

I gripped the bathroom sink, my knuckles turning white, breathing through the cramp that twisted through my abdomen like a curse.

No blood.

No heat cycle. No mating bond snapping.

But I could feel it—something was wrong.

I pushed off the sink, stumbling toward the door. I needed fresh air, a moment to clear my head. Maybe even to escape this place. But as I reached for the knob and twisted, it didn’t move.

Click.

It was locked. From the outside.

“Hello?” I called out, my voice sharp and urgent as worry started to creep inside me.

Then came her voice. The last one I wanted to hear.

Lexie.

“Bitch,” she drawled from the other side, her tone smug. “How’s that hand-me-down love treating you?”

My heart clenched.

“Alpha Darius’s always loved me, from the very beginning. Now that I’m back, you should step aside. You really have the nerve to show up tonight? Trying to steal my spotlight?” she snarled, her voice rising.

I doubled over, my stomach folding with a wave of pain so sharp I nearly fell to my knees. Cold sweat beaded on my forehead. My wolf whimpered inside me, recoiling—something was off. Wrong. Tainted.

Whatever she did… it wasn’t just petty jealousy. Something unnatural was coursing through my system. Poison? A spell?

Gritting my teeth, I leaned against the door. “Lexie, if you want him—take him,” I rasped. “I’m done.”

A beat of silence.

Then, she laughed. Cold. Cruel.

“Funny. Do you think I’d believe that? You stole my mom and my Alpha father back then—now you want to steal my mate too? Who do you think you are?”

Mate…

That word pierced me harder than any insult. Because Alpha Darius… Darius Nightbane had been my fated mate.

Or so I thought.

“You’re staying in here tonight,” she hissed. “No one’s coming to save you.”

I heard the scrape of metal outside. She dragged something heavy in front of the door, then the sharp snap of a sign being placed—Restricted Area. Do Not Enter.

Of course. This wing of the auction house was off-limits, the area where rare magical items were kept. Phones had been surrendered before entering. Cameras disabled.

No one would come looking. No one would even think to.

Especially not Darius, he wouldn’t even notice I am gone, not with Lexie beside him.

I slid to the floor, my body shaking uncontrollably. The pain in my stomach had dulled to a slow, dragging ache—but my heart? My heart was wide open and bleeding.

I lifted my trembling hand and pounded on the door.

“Help… Someone, please…”

My voice cracked, hoarse and dry. I screamed again, raw and wild—but all that met me was silence. The sign outside was a ward in itself. People would see it and turn away.

Time blurred. Minutes. Hours. Maybe more. I cried until there were no tears left. I screamed until my voice was gone.

Eventually… the darkness claimed me.

--

The Next Morning

I woke to the clatter of keys, and the creak of a door swinging open.

A woman’s gasp.

“Oh, the moon above—Miss? Miss, can you hear me?”

My eyes fluttered open. The world swam in a gray haze. I was cold. Freezing. My dress clung to my skin, soaked through. My limbs refused to move at first.

Then I saw her—the cleaner.

I tried to speak, but my throat burned. I forced myself to sit up, pressing my palms to the cold floor.

“No…” I whispered, my voice barely audible. “No need… I’ll be fine.”

That was a lie.

Everything inside me felt broken. My wolf was curled tight in my chest, silent. She hadn’t spoken since the pain started.

The cleaner helped me stand, her brow creased with worry. I gave her a weak smile and staggered out on my own, leaning on the wall, one step at a time.

Just like I guessed, Alpha Darius hadn’t come.

Not once.

The realization settled like a stone in my chest.

I remembered, when Lexie went missing for ten minutes at a pack ball, Darius had nearly shifted out of worry and stormed the place down looking for her.

But me?

A whole night. Not even a call.

Not even a thought.

Then I realized, that love was a bond forged between two souls. But indifference, indifference was a blade, and last night, it sliced me open.

When I retrieved my phone at the entrance, I didn’t even bother checking for his name—I already knew what I would find. Nothing. No missed calls. No messages. Not a single word from the mate who was supposed to protect me, love me, fight for me.

Except one.

Riven Ashton.

The only one who still saw me—not as what I had become, but as the woman I once was, before betrayal carved me hollow.

[Avelyn, I can’t wait a whole month. One week. I’m coming to get you in a week.]

Tears blurred my vision, but they didn’t fall from sadness. They came from something deeper, sharper—resolve.

What I had felt last night wasn’t just the sting of betrayal or the ache of a shattered heart. It was something far more wild. Something had awakened within me—something ancient and powerful. I could feel her now… my wolf, long dormant, stirring in the shadows of my soul. She was stretching, sharpening, and changing.

Whatever Lexie had tried to do to me—whatever cruel games she played—she thought it would break me.

But it had done the opposite.

It had awakened the bloodline buried in my bones. The one born of moonlight and fire. The one who remembers war, survival, and vengeance.

They had left me to die. Starved me. Stripped me of my title, my pride…

They locked me away like I was nothing.

But I am not anything.

I am Avelyn Moonveil.

And they are about to learn that a wounded wolf doesn’t disappear.

She evolves.

And when she comes back, she never misses her mark.

The moment Riven Ashton’s message appeared on my phone, a faint warmth stirred beneath the numb frost in my chest. After days of feeling nothing but the cold rhythm of survival, seeing his name brought a flicker of something like comfort.

[Okay.]

That was my reply—simple, final, safe.

‘Yeah, a month is too long,’ I told myself, staring at the message like it could ease the ache. ‘One week will do.’

Seven more days under this roof. Seven days to mourn the ashes of a bond Alpha Darius had already burned. Then I’d be gone. For good. No farewell, no final howl beneath the moon. I’d sever myself from this territory, this pain, and the Alpha I once thought was fated for me.

The moment I stepped into the pack house, I smelled her.

Lexie.

Her scent—a toxic blend of lilac and synthetic lust—clung to the air like spoiled wine. It wrapped around the walls of the home that was once mine. I followed it into the main hall, and there she was.

Lounging on the velvet couch like a queen in conquest, wearing my nightgown. The white one is lined with silver thread. The one Darius had once torn off me during our mating moon. Seeing her in it felt like being slapped. My wolf stirred restlessly but remained silent.

The door closed behind me, and she glanced up. Her lips curled into a sneer.

"Back already?" Her voice dripped with mockery. "You look like a mess."

She rose slowly, her bare feet soundless against the marble. Reaching me, she tilted my chin with her fingers—bold, defiant.

“Tsk,” she said, studying me like a cracked mirror. “Pale as death. If I didn’t know better, I’d say your wolf is dying too.”

She leaned in, letting the silk slip from her shoulder, revealing the mating marks across her chest. “See these?” she whispered. “All from Alpha Darius. Last night was… intense.”

My jaw tightened, but I didn’t pull away. My silence only encouraged her.

She dropped her voice, her words aimed at the wound. “He said I make him feel like a real man. That you lie there like a corpse. Cold. Weak. That your wolf hasn’t surfaced in months—probably bored of you too.”

I didn’t remember moving. One moment her breath was on my cheek, and the next, my palm connected with her face. The slap echoed. Her head snapped, blood rising to the surface.

Her gasp of shock was far more satisfying than it should’ve been.

“Know your place,” I said, my voice low—not from fear, but fury. “I’m still Luna. You’re just the servant’s daughter who clawed her way into a bed that was never yours.”

She snarled, showing her fangs, but then her gaze shifted. She went still.

And as expected, just a few moments later, Alpha Darius arrived.

I felt him before I saw him. The shift in the air, the weight of his aura pressing down like gravity. And as if almost instantly, Lexie dropped to her knees like prey caught in a predator’s gaze.

“L-Luna Avelyn, I’m sorry!” she wailed. “I should never have come back! I’ll leave—I’ll die if it means I’m not in your way!”

Alpha Darius moved fast. Lexie bolted toward the marble column, but he caught her just in time, pulling her into his arms like a fragile thing.

“Lex…” he said gently, “I invited you. If anyone has a problem with you… they’ll deal with me.”

Something cracked inside me then. Not all at once—but slow, splintering, final.

I didn’t cry.

Not even when he turned to me, cold and unfamiliar. “Avelyn Moonveil,” he snapped. “Apologize to her.”

I looked at him, my voice flat. “I didn’t do anything wrong. You’re not even curious where I was last night?”

“Did you—” he began, frowning.

“Don’t you want to know who I was with?” I interrupted. “What I’ve done?”

“I don’t care,” he said. “You don’t get to hurt Lexie. Apologize, or you’re suspended from your role. Out of Council. Out of everything.”

He thought I’d be devastated.

He never knew I only carried the burden so he didn’t have to. I bore his failures, hoping he'd one day choose me again.

Darius turned away with Lexie. Just before they disappeared upstairs, he told the maid, “Don’t let her eat until she apologizes.”

And just like that, the mate I had loved for three years walked away.

I stood frozen, staring at the space he left behind. Slowly, my body caught up with what my heart had already accepted.

I didn’t love him anymore.

Not after this.

--

The days bled into silence.

I was confined to the pack house, treated like a rogue. Three times a day, the maid asked if I’d realized my mistake. Three times, I said nothing. I counted the days. Five. Four. Three.

My phone buzzed with messages from Lexie.

In the morning I planned to leave, another message came.

[Bitch, you couldn’t win our mother, and you can’t win a man. One word from me, and Darius won’t come home for a month.]

She was right.

My mate never returned.

But Lexie made sure she sent daily videos—kissing on the beach, cooking in the kitchen, writhing beneath him under the moon. In the past, I’d have curled up and cried until my wolf howled.

But it was all in the past… Now, I felt nothing.

Darius had never been mine. He only borrowed my love until it became inconvenient.

By the fourth day, I’d survived on nothing but water. My limbs trembled. My vision blurred. But I refused to beg.

I refused to apologize for something I didn’t do.

That evening, I stepped into the garden, needing air—even if it was laced with lies.

Then it happened.

A golden retriever barreled out of nowhere, slamming into my side. I collapsed onto the stone path. I should’ve stayed standing—but I was brittle, hollow.

A sharp pain exploded in my abdomen.

Then I felt the wet warmth, I looked down, I wanted to scream, and cursed at the moon, but I couldn’t do anything but let blood soak through my pants. My knees buckled. The scent of iron filled the air. I couldn’t move.

No…

I knew instantly.

Two months ago, Alpha Darius and I had shared one last hollow night. His mother and elder Alpha Fenric wanted an heir. We hadn’t used protection. I had hoped.

Now, I feel that hope is dying inside me.

“Help,” I whispered.

Only the driver moved. He rushed me into the car, driving like hell toward the hospital. I clutched my stomach, my breath shallow.

Then the car stopped.

“Why—?”

“Luna Avelyn,” he stammered, “it’s Lady Lexie Moonceil’s birthday. Alpha Darius shut down the roads for her party. We… we can’t get through.”

I turned my head toward the window, and what I saw nearly broke me all over again. Fireworks burst across the sky in vibrant colors, laughter echoed in the distance, and the entire territory seemed to pulse with celebration.

And me?

I was bleeding out in the back seat of a car—forgotten, discarded, alone.

That was Darius, Alpha of the Nightbane Pack’s love out there.

Not quite. Not intimate. But loud, extravagant, and meant for someone else.

Each explosion of light in the sky felt like a dagger to my chest, a cruel reminder that while he lit up the heavens for her, I was left to suffer in silence.

With what little strength I had left, I reached for the ring on my finger—the symbol of three years of loyalty, of sacrifice, of believing in a bond that was never real.

My hands trembled as I pulled it free.

I rolled down the window, the cold night air cutting across my skin like truth itself, and without hesitation, I let the ring slip from my fingers into the darkness.

Let the wolves howl.

I was finished.

No more mourning. No more waiting.

Whatever love I had carried for him died in that moment—alongside everything else he’d taken from me.